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Cardekho.com Acquires Gaadi.com September 2014

Jaipur, India, 30-September-2014 -- Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, owners of auto portal CarDekho.com, and ibibo Group have announced an agreement whereby GirnarSoft will acquire Gaadi.com, one of India’s leading auto portals, for an undisclosed amount.

With the combined volumes of CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com exceeding 15 million monthly visitors, this transaction positions GirnarSoft as the undisputed #1 player in auto search and lead generation business in India,.

The Signal Hill India team led by Klaas, Meherzad and Saurabh, guided us through the process and worked tenaciously to create a desirable outcome for the Company. We are excited about the future with CarDekho and look forward to creating the most valuable online auto company in India.

Umang Kumar, CEO

Gaadi.com

The company stated that CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com will continue to run independently and operate as separate businesses in order to drive deep focus. While management teams of each of these entities will continue to build their businesses, GirnarSoft will look to create cross-synergies in product development for consumers and dealers, as well as in back-end operating systems.

Gaadi.com was founded in 2008. The company was acquired in 2011 by ibibo Group during the early days of its evolution, and quickly became a leader in the used car segment online.

Speaking on this occasion, Umang Kumar, co-founder/CEO Gaadi.com said, "This is a great outcome for all stakeholders – ibibo Group, Gaadi employees and CarDekho. Gaadi.com grew 10x in 3.5 years as a part of ibibo Group and together with CarDekho we can scale our leadership in the used car business even faster. I had a good time at ibibo, and hope to have an even better time with CarDekho!"

According to Amit Jain, founder/CEO of GirnarSoft, "Bringing Cardekho.com and Gaadi.com together creates outright market leadership for us in online auto in terms of visitors, dealer base and revenue. CarDekho.com is already #1 in the new car segment, and growing rapidly with its OEM and dealer tie-ups. The used car strength that Gaadi.com brings to the stable means that we will now be able to offer unparalleled products, services and support to all stakeholders, be it consumers, OEM manufacturers and new and used car dealers."

The core business model of CarDekho and Gaadi is earnings from lead generation for new and used cars, and media sales on their portals. The two put together boast of more than 2,500 car dealer tie-ups across the country, the largest among auto portals. Besides these, CarDekho helps retail over 4,000 cars per month for eight OEM manufacturers that it partners with.

According to Ashish Kashyap, CEO of ibibo Group : "ibibo Group wants to focus on online travel sector across its assets: Goibibo.com, TBOGroup, redBus.in and YourBus. ibibo has significant leadership and scale in each of these businesses and would want to further double up on this sector. Umang and the team at Gaadi.com are excellent and we have enjoyed working with them to build out the vertical. Our aim was to ensure that Gaadi.com gets the right home, and we are happy that it has been achieved through this acquisition."

Naspers was advised by Signal Hill India.

About ibibo Group

ibibo Group is India's leading online travel group that owns properties such as Goibibo.com (Leading B2C Online travel aggregator); redBus.in (No 1 online bus ticketing platform) and travelboutique (Leading B2B online travel platform). The combined travel assets of ibibo Group makes the company the largest in terms of volume of transactions. Ibibo Group was founded in 2007 by Ashish Kashyap and is a subsidiary of Naspers.

About Gaadi.com

Gaadi.com is a leading online auto platform focusing on Indian market. Founded in 2008, Gaadi has built a leadership in the used cars segment through its online and mobile platform for both consumers and dealers. Company was acquired in 2011 by goibibo Group (Part of Naspers) and has since then grown consistently.

About Girnar Software (Cardekho.com)

Founded in 2007, Jaipur-based Girnar Software, owns several internet portals including Cardekho, Bikedekho and Pricedekho. CarDekho was founded in March 2008 and is the leader in the new cars segment in India. Girnar Software is a Sequoia Capital portfolio company.